u/DocWatson42

My lists are always being updated and expanded when new information comes in—what did I miss or am I unaware of (even if the thread predates my membership in Reddit), and what needs correction? Even (especially) if I get a subreddit or date wrong. (Note that, other than the quotation marks, the thread titles are "sic". I only change the quotation marks to match the standard usage (double to single, etc.) when I add my own quotation marks around the threads' titles.)

The lists are in absolute ascending chronological order by the posting date, and if need be the time of the initial post, down to the minute (or second, if required—there are several examples of this). The dates are in DD MMMM YYYY format per personal preference, and times are in Coordinated Universal Time ("UTC") since that's how they appear to me, and I'm not going to go to the trouble of converting to another time zone. They are also in twenty-four hour format, as that's what I prefer, and it saves the trouble and confusion of a.m. and p.m. Where the same user posts the same request to different subreddits, I note the user's name in order to indicate that I am aware of the duplication.

Thread lengths: longish (50–99 posts)/long (100–199 posts)/very long (200–299 posts)/extremely long (300–399 posts)/huge (400+ posts) (though not all threads are this strictly classified, especially ones before mid?-2023, though I am updating shorter lists as I repost them); they are in lower case to prevent their confusion with the name "Long" and are the first notation after a thread's information.

Big Dumb Object at Wikipedia

Big Dumb Object at TVTropes

Big Dumb Object at Tropedia

Big Dumb Object Books at Goodreads

Megastructure at Wikipedia; see the "Fictional" section

Macrostructures at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (which supersedes the "Big Dumb Objects" entry)

Top 10 Sci-Fi Books with BIG DUMB OBJECTS—YouTube

See also my SF/F: Exploration list of Reddit recommendation threads and books (one post) and The List of Lists/The Master List of recommendation lists.

• "Help me remember a BDO (Big Dumb Object) book" (r/printSF; 9 December 2010)
  • Thistledown series by Greg Bear
• "Big Dumb Object/Sensawunda/Space Archaeology recommendations?" (r/printSF; 4 March 2012)
• "Favorite B.D.O. books?" (r/printSF; 23 August 2013)
• "Large list of Big Dumb Objects, including sources to read in case you want to know more about some of them." (r/scifi; 25 November 2013)
  • Smith, Ross (18 February 1994). "Re: Dyson Sphere alternatives": "Megastructures". rec.arts.sf.science.
• "Recent 'Big Dumb Object' recommendations?" (r/printSF; 2 July 2014)
• "Doe anyone know what was the first 'big dumb object' story?" (r/printSF; 3 March 2015)
• "Derelict Ships, Big Dumb Objects, etc." (r/printSF; 16 April 2016)
• "Books that deal with huge timelines and/or 'big dumb objects'" (r/printSF; 20 June 2017)
• "BDO (Big Dumb Object) book recommendations?" (r/printSF; 10 July 2017)
• "Big Dumb Object scifi books like Ringworld, Marrow, Halo and Starhammer you would recommend?" (r/booksuggestions; 11 November 2017)
• "A Brief History of the Big Dumb Object Story in Science Fiction" (r/printSF; 9 July 2018)
  • Nicoll, James Davis (8 January 2018). "A Brief History of the Big Dumb Object Story in Science Fiction". Reactor.
• "Best Big Dumb Object books?" (r/suggestmeabook; 12 July 2018)
  • John Varley's Gaea trilogy; at Goodreads
• "Favorite Big Dumb Object tales?" (r/printSF; 22 August 2018)—long
• "Any Big Dumb Objects in Fantasy?" (r/mmm; 3 April 2020)—long
• "Big Dumb Object recommendations that aren't Sci-Fi?" (r/Fantasy; 30 May 2020)
• "[Request] Classic Big Dumb Objects written by women?" (r/Fantasy; 15 July 2020)
• "What is your favourite BDO (big dumb object)?" (r/scifi; 19 July 2020)—longish
• "Bingo focus thread - BDO - Big Dumb Object" (r/Fantasy; 28 July 2020)—longish
• "[Bingo 2020] Book vs. Book - Big Dumb Object" (r/Fantasy; 12 August 2020)
• "Are there any Warhammer novels with Big Dumb Objects?" (r/40kLore; 30 October 2020)
• "Recent (published in the past 2 years) big dumb object books?" (r/printSF; 26 November 2020)
• "Good 'Big Dumb Object' & 'The Zone' stories?" (r/scifi; 29 September 2021)
• "Big idea /BDO recommendations" (r/printSF; 9 February 2022)
• "Novels about mysterious objects?" (r/booksuggestions; 15 November 2022)
• "Big Dumb Object (BDO) in weird fiction?" (r/WeirdLit; 28 November 2022)
• "Good suggestions for driving into Sci-Fi as a pretty avid reader" (r/suggestmeabook; 14:50 ET, 24 April 2023)
• "A group of almost experts goes to investigate an anomaly, when everything slowly goes wrong?" (r/booksuggestions; 3 February 2023)
• "Any dark sci fi novels that deal with the idea of megastructures." (r/printSF; 11:26 ET, 9 May 2023)
• "Recent mysterious first contact/BDO novels?" (r/printSF; 10 March 2024)—longish
• "Big dumb object fantasy" (r/Fantasy; 14:40 ET, 7 July 2024)—longish; and science fiction
• "Big dumb object book recs?" (r/printSF; 18 May 2026)—longish

Related:

• "Book about mystery huge spaceship?" (r/printSF; 16 April 2016)
• "Hard Sci-Fi recommendations" (r/printSF; 1 February 2018)—long
  • "Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness"—TVTropes
• "SciFi books and films that revolve around objects?" (r/scifi; 30 May 2022)—longish
• "Any books similar to 'Rendezvous with Rama'?" (r/printSF; 11 August 2024)—long
• "Books with big objects" (r/scifi; 23 October 2024)
• "Sci-fi books with giant structures" (r/BooksThatFeelLikeThis; 13 January 2025)
• "Any books similar to the video game trope of things like Bioshock/System Shock/Dead Cells where you're exploring a frightening ship or space station trying to figure out what happened?" (r/printSF; 4 January 2026)
• "Looking for scifi games with 'big dumb objects'" (r/gamingsuggestions; 18 May 2026)—longish

Greetings and felicitations. Is there a term/what is the term for (outdoor) stairs made of wooden frames with earthen/gravel centers? E.g.:

• https://citizenupgrade.com/posts/terracedsteps/ (is it "terraced"?)
• https://craftthyme.com/how-to-make-timber-pea-gravel-stairs/
• https://www.housedigest.com/1553809/tiktok-diy-built-in-outdoor-staircase-safety-concerns/
• https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-wooden-and-gravel-steps-lead-down-from-a-hiking-trail-in-normandy-126627723.html

Greetings and felicitations. I have had The Remains of Tom Lehrer box set for apparent decades, and am wondering who else is like him. I infer/vaguely recall that Steve Allen is likely, but none of his three comedic albums are available on CD. I also have both of "Weird Al" Yankovic's box sets (Permanent Record: Al in the Box and Squeeze Box, which superseded it) and all four of the CDs by Garfunkel and Oates, plus an extensive filk, though much of it is on cassette. Who else is there (on CD)?